RIP Philip Seymour Hoffman

[Greg]

Was it Damien or Penelope that had that special nickname for him? I can't recall what the nickname was or who used it most often.

For what it is worth, I believe Damien referred to Hoffman as "The Blob."

[flipp525]

Truly epic eyeroll.

[ITALIANO]

No, no names - it's not the right moment. They know, anyway. It's not important, and it's also possible that they have changed their mind. I like to believe that this is what happened. Better late than never.

[flipp525]

It's not important who invented it - but some of those who repeated it or found it funny are now expressing florid words of sorrow in this thread. And this I don't like, sorry.

And who would these people be? Please let us know. Because now you're being very specific, not general at all.

[ITALIANO]

The nickname was so stupid that it doesn't even deserve to be remembered. It had to do with the fact that Hoffman wasn't exactly slim - nor as handsome as Heath Ledger, which on this board was, at the time, a major crime. It's not important who invented it - but some of those who repeated it or found it funny are now expressing florid words of sorrow in this thread. And this I don't like, sorry.

I know that this board doesn't represent America - of course. And this is why right now I'm not talking about America in general. And I am not even saying "I told you so", though, like in other cases, I could. But that would be childish. I'm just sad when real talent is recognized - a bit hypocritically - only in the moment of death.

[flipp525]

Even my brother - who doesn't have anything to do with movies or show business, except as a viewer - called me in shock when he learned about his death. He couldn't believe it. Hoffman was really an immense talent, one that Americans especially should have been proud of. Not the Americans on this board though - he was often made fun of here, because he wasn't conventionally handsome and, as some openly loved to say, "fat" (true intellectuals!). His performance in Capote was commented on this board with a hatred, an aggressiveness, which almost scared me. (It's a pity that those old posts are lost). In a way I guess that his talent was even too big, too obvious - and this can make a certain kind of people envious, annoyed. I think he could be proud of the anger his performances evoked from (some) members of this board - it happens to those who are really good.

Was it Damien or Penelope that had that special nickname for him? I can't recall what the nickname was or who used it most often.

And, Italiano, don't take one, two or even three posters' opinions of Hoffman as representative of what all "Americans" thought. Or even the majority of Americans on this board. Who does that? Are you really boiling this all down to an "I told you so" teaching moment?

[ITALIANO]

Even my brother - who doesn't have anything to do with movies or show business, except as a viewer - called me in shock when he learned about his death. He couldn't believe it. Hoffman was really an immense talent, one that Americans especially should have been proud of. Not the Americans on this board though - he was often made fun of here, because he wasn't conventionally handsome and, as some openly loved to say, "fat" (true intellectuals!). His performance in Capote was commented on this board with a hatred, an aggressiveness, which almost scared me. (It's a pity that those old posts are lost). In a way I guess that his talent was even too big, too obvious - and this can make a certain kind of people envious, annoyed. I think he could be proud of the anger his performances evoked from (some) members of this board - it happens to those who are really good.

[flipp525]

I've been unusually affected by this death. I'm not sure why. I randomly popped in "Capote" during the Christmas break and was really taken aback by just how good Hoffman is in it. At the time, I annoyed that he had "taken" Heath Ledger's Oscar. But the performance really stands up (and I'm one of the few on this Board who thinks that Catherine Keener is equally outstanding alongside him in the film).

There are so many amazing performances of his that come to mind, but the ones that are immediately zooming to the foreground for me are his supporting turn in "Boogie Nights" and his strangely prescient work in Lumet's darkly comic "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead." His performance in the latter, I think, should've brought him another Oscar nod that year (in addition to his well-deserved supporting nomination for "Charlie Wilson's War."

This is probably the first truly shocking celebrity death of 2014.

Philip Seymour Hoffman (whom I just learned at 46 is the shortest-lived recipient of the Oscar for Best Actor)

If so, you have apparently not been reading everyone else's posts. Heksagon pointed this out Sunday.

Big Magilla, your bitchiness is really unnecessary in this thread.

[Big Magilla]

Philip Seymour Hoffman (whom I just learned at 46 is the shortest-lived recipient of the Oscar for Best Actor)

If so, you have apparently not been reading everyone else's posts. Heksagon pointed this out Sunday. Robert Donat was the previous record holder when de died at 53 in 1958, nine years before Hoffman was born.

Ironically Donat's last film, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, comes out on Blu-ray today.

[ksrymy]

Police found fifty bags of heroin in his apartment.

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni56753939/?ref_=hm_nw_tp_t1

[Sabin]

Owen Gleiberman is quickly becoming my favorite film essayist these days. This is pretty much it, up and down...

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2014/02/02/p ... ura-actor/

William Goldman used to do this thing where he would leave the great actors? What movie and what moment? With Philip Seymour Hoffman (whom I just learned at 46 is the shortest-lived recipient of the Oscar for Best Actor) it is so damn difficult to choose? Do you leave him laughing, bleary-eyed in Capote, the life of the party? Anything from any movie directed by Paul Thomas Anderson?

I leave Philip Seymour Hoffman in that scene from Almost Famous where he talks to Patrick Fugit on the phone. He's playing a man who overdosed himself, who takes a moment out of his busy night of God knows what to counsel a kid who's just starting out. I wish Philip Seymour Hoffman had a Lester Bangs to talk to him, although who knows if he would have listened. Maybe his demons needed to be put to rest at a much younger age.

I'm not quite ready to say rest in peace yet because I'm still too angry.

[Cinemanolis]

I love many of his performances "Love Liza", "The Talented Mr. Ripley", "Almost Famous", "Magnolia", "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" and particularly "Boogie Nights", "Capote", "The Master" and "Happiness".
However it was when i saw him in "Death of a Salesman" on Broadway 2 years ago that i realized what an important actor he was. Playing a role that is supposed to be 20 years older than he was, he created a Willy Loman i will never forget. I also had the pleasure of seeing the "legendary" production of "Seagull" starring alongside Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Natalie Portman, John Goodman, Marcia Hay Harden, Christopher Walken, Debra Monk and Stephen Spinella, where he was also a standout.

RIP

[The Original BJ]

Hoffman had three children - son Cooper, 10; daughters Tallulah, 7, and Willa, 5, with costume designer Mimi O'Donnell.

Even worse.

[Big Magilla]

Hoffman had three children - son Cooper, 10; daughters Tallulah, 7, and Willa, 5, with costume designer Mimi O'Donnell.

[The Original BJ]

Pretty much everything about this news is devastating -- the fact that he left two young kids behind, the fact that he died in such a tragic way, and for movie fans, the fact that a career at its zenith was cut decades short.

I was a big fan of his early character actor days. In movies like Boogie Nights, Happiness, Magnolia, and The Talented Mr. Ripley he always seemed to provide unique, often very funny color to the sidelines of interesting films. And I'll second FilmFan's statement about his range -- even in his smaller roles, he's completely different from film to film. My favorite performance of his from this period is definitely Almost Famous, where he's funny in totally singular ways and manages to create a full human character as well.

Once he became a "star" character actor, he wasn't always perfectly cast (Doubt especially giving him a role that didn't seem to suit his persona at all), but he consistently brought intelligence and a commanding sense of craft to his performances. I thought his unsettling work in The Master was the peak of his career, and given his age and the types of roles he played, there was no reason to think he wouldn't keep getting great parts for years and years to come.

We can only hope that whatever troubled him so much in this life is hurting no more. And of course, there are the performances we DO have that will not easily be forgotten.